About Bronze Clay

Bronze clay is a non-toxic metal clay product
used by jewelry artists and craftspeople
to create one-of-a kind and small run jewelry,
models, prototypes, sculpture and decorative
items.
Just about anything you can image can be
sculpted, formed or molded using the moist
clay. Bronze is a very strong metal and makes
a wonderful medium for jewelry.

Bronze is an alloy, which is a word used
to describe metals that have been mixed together
to form a new metal. By adding a ratio of 10% tin to 90% copper, we have bronze. The amount of tin added affects
the properties of the alloy. There are special
bronze alloys that are used for many surprising
things, such as a special alloy just for
making bells. Too much tin in the recipe
and there's no ring to it!

We offer 3 types of bronze clay, BRONZclay, and FastFire BRONZclay by Metal Clay Adventures, and powdered Bronze clay by Hadar Jacobson. BRONZclay (also called
Original BRONZclay), must be fired according
to the thickness of the piece and can take
up to 9 hours for sintering for really large, thick items. FastFire BRONZclay
is a formulation that fires in only 2 hours
for most pieces. Objects are fired in a table
top kiln to transform them from clay into a solid bronze
metal. Gemstones and other items can be embedded
in the wet clay and fired together.

The same tools and textures used with silver
clays are also perfect for working with bronze
clays. If you are working in other metal
clays, such as silver, you'll need a separate
set of "dusty" tools for bronze
to avoid cross-contamination. Unfired dust
and bits of bronze clay must be kept away
from other metal clays to avoid contamination and discoloration
that cannot be removed. Rolling tools, worksurfaces,
textures and other tools used while the clay
is wet can be cleaned off and used for any
clays you work with. But you need to dedicate
a set of files and sanding tools just for
bronze. Brushing the dust off the tools is
not good enough. The tools must not mingle.
The rule is easy: if the tool creates dust
or if dust builds up on it, keep a separate
set for each type of metal.

Because bronze contains copper, the clay
must be protected in a bed of carbon firing
media inside a stainless steel pan when fired. The activated
carbon keeps oxygen away from the piece being fired, and, in turn, keeps the product from oxidizing and turning the bronze black. The media used is important, since
some types of carbon do not allow sintering
of the metal particles. We recommend Coal carbon or Magic carbon for a beautiful antique patina, or Coconut carbon for a clean satin finish. In addition to carbon, BRONZclay requires a digitally controlled kiln to properly
sinter the clay into a solid, dense metal
form.